Spiritual & Literate, Country-Folk-Roots-Rock songs that have much in common with Americana and Alt.Country, while having broad influences, from the Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen to Townes Van Zandt.

10 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Country Folk, ROCK: Americana



Details:
Stephen Simmons was raised in the small town of Woodbury, Tennessee. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father held a factory job (In his family, they were the first generation that didnât work the farm). Humble and soft-spoken, Stephen at first seems to exemplify this rural, Church of Christ upbringing. As a songwriter, however, his vision is much more complex. The songs on his new recording, Drink Ring Jesus, tell stories of country lifeâs dark side and serve to remind listeners how it feels to stand at the intersection of piety and sin.

âWhen youâre raised in the Church of Christ, if youâre sensitive at all, it leaves you with a lot to struggle with,â says Stephen, who now lives in Nashville. âYou grow up to see that there are gaps and holes in what youâve been taught; there are questions where there are not supposed to be questions. On the one hand, I was exposed to small community religious life, but on the other, I was exposed to my wild-ass relatives. My songs are an attempt to get all those contradictions out.â

Like Stephenâs previous record, Last Call, which was compared to everyone from Johnny Cash to Ryan Adams, Drink Ring Jesus provides a front porch view of life in rural Tennessee, albeit one with a sometimes sinister perspective. This time, though, Simmons dispenses with the rhythm section and electric guitars, making his last-song-of-the-night vocals and hardtack acoustic accompaniment seem all the more ominous and immediate. On songs like âTime To Pay,â Simmons explores the tension between faith and cutting and running. âComes a time to be brave,â he sings, âYour soul is mine/ Now itâs time to pay.â If anything, Drink Ring Jesus focuses more on religious faith, or its lack, than did its predecessor, though Simmons understands that spirituality is guesswork at best. âWell Iâm out here, out here on the road/ Seem to wonder whoâs watching over my soul.... Lord, I wonder where this road really goes/ Man, I wonder who knows,â he sings on Carpenter Skills.

Redemption, spiritual or otherwise, is a recurring theme on Drink Ring Jesus. âNext Stop, Redemptionâ finds Simmons on a âtrain trying to find its way home/ Picking up people like a lost and found,â he sings, âHittinâ every depot thatâs long been abandoned/ Man, this train is going where we need to go. Likewise, on âCryinâ Elvis,â a worn-out portrait of The King looks down on an anonymous stage like Jesus, but unlike The King of Kings, Elvis wonât be coming back to deliver the singer from a roadhouse life where âthese old ears have heard too many shows.â

Drink Ring Jesus, which was recorded in Nashville by producer/engineer Eric Fritsch (Scott Miller, RB Morris, Carter Little, Rowland Stebbins), is the follow-up to Simmons full-band debut, Last Call, which was praised critics worldwide. Among itâs remarkable notices, renown country music authority Robert K. Oermann called the record âragged-but-rightâ and âutterly compelling,â and Nashville Scene music editor Bill Friskics-Warren repeatedly placed the record alongside the work of Steve Earle and âany aggregation of three-named Texas troubadours youâd care to recall.â In a coup for Stephenâs do-it-yourself marketing scheme, The November 2004 edition of Mojo Magazine listed him, along with the likes of Bobby Bare, Jr. and Josh Ritter, as âOne Of Five Young Bucks Taking a Lead From Johnny Cash.

âAt times I feel like Iâm being deadly serious, but at the same time being tongue in cheek,â says Stephen, who, last year, was a finalist in Merlefestâs prestigious songwriting competition. He admits that, like Last Call, Drink Ring Jesus is mostly about âlying, cheating and drinking.â That said, his vision of Middle Tennesseeâs underbelly is not nearly as dark as it might seem. âThese are not so much records about saints, as they are about sinners,â he says. âBut I truly believe that thereâs salvation out there for everyone. In that sense, I guess theyâre songs about all of us."